By S PAUL
This has reference to Ms Maria Wirth’s write up about the wrongful use of social media to project to some Western Christian nations, and spreading the dread of hate and persecution of Indian Christians by ‘Hindu’ radicals in GP, dated 11 March, 2019. She has rightly brought out that most of this is false propaganda generated by vested interests in our Bharat, itself. My comment is aimed at analysing and exposing such vested interests. Firstly, these are the pseudo Christians looking for financial aid from foreigners, who give it in the belief that a lot of missionary work is being done for the uplift of the ‘Dalits’ in Bharat. It may be an act of philanthropy for them but we in this nation have identified certain events of proselytisation by allurement, too. That is not only anti-Christian but against human dignity. This by itself has become the spark for the radicals among our ‘Hindu’ samaaj to develop hatred which transcends into heinous acts like that of the burning of Dr Graham Staines and his two adolescent sons in their sleep. The blinded perpetrator did not consider the difference between the Dr and his family, who were working genuinely for the uplift of tribals and leprosy patients in Odisha, and those whose only aim is to ‘convert’ through allurement or threats or promises of a better life. In an interview with the Hindustan Times, one of the accused killers of Dr Staines stated that they “were provoked due to the ‘corruption of tribal culture’ by the missionaries, who they claimed fed villagers beef and gave women brassieres and sanitary towels.” (What would these extremists say to ‘Padman’, then?) Secondly, such is the act of sheer hatred generated by such uneducated Bharatiye who do not even know the immensity of our culture and spiritual attainment of our race. Our culture is an ocean in which all other cultures and religions get accepted as streams and rivers. ‘Hinduism’ as the name given to us by foreigners and readily adopted by us is comparatively of a very recent evolution. Although it is culture based, it has been fanaticised due to our exposure to alien influence which brought variations in human faith like Christianity and Islam to our land. Faiths which were not based on our culture took advantage of only one grossly distorted factor in practice of our religion, which is ‘the caste divide’. The caste system was indeed a part of our social ethos based on division of labour properly defined by our Vedic culture. That practice could have been very successful under a monarchical rule. But in a democratic system, where every citizen has equal status and rights, this practice becomes redundant. It can also be classed as ‘persecution’ of the lower castes. The proselytisation by allurement is then a product of this mal-practice as the downtrodden (Dalits) among us rightfully seek ‘roti-kapada- makaan and izzat’ FCSR (Food- Clothing-Shelter and Respect). True missionaries, be they of any religious background, working among them, do not ever tempt them to convert but only try to raise their confidence in humanity and themselves for them to rise and toil to become equal to others. There are many in our own nation with ‘Tilak’ and ‘Yagyopavit’ (sacred thread) who are recognized for their efforts to uplift the lot of the ‘dalits’. They go out to our social wilderness and accept ‘tasted’ plums from the grateful ‘Shibrees’. No one has to become a Christian to do that. No religion professes hate and destruction of those who do not believe in Divinity as them; least of all our spiritually ascended ancient Vedic faith (Sanatana Dharma) now termed ‘Hindu’. How can God, the creator of all, authorise just one species to kill and destroy itself wantonly (neither for eating nor for self preservation) in His name? People and groups who practice this evil are classified as Fanatics and can only be recognised as Cultists. They are obsessed with the singular aim of generating recognition and respect for themselves among the populace by threat of destruction to life and property. I feel that more than the society, it is the ilk of our present day politicians who use such cults in order to generate votebanks, especially at the time of elections. Such elements then get converted to the ways of politics and corrupt our governance. Does this not qualify as ‘Proselytisation’? Therefore, our society should work more enthusiastically to eradicate the caste and religious divide among us. Reservations have not brought about this desired equality. On the contrary, it has aggravated it, resulting in the rise of such aberrations of our religion. Once cured of this, we in this land need not fear any adulteration of our cultural, spiritual and ethnic uniqueness in this world. We will then rule the world not with hatred and mayhem, but through compassion and concern for all, reinforcing the dictum ‘Vasudeva Kutmbukam”.
